Prolific paedophile jailed after boasting about abusing young girls

A paedophile was brought to justice after boasting in online chats that he had sexually abused young girls, Lincoln Crown Court was told.

Callum Reynolds attracted the attention of police as a result of the comments he made to a sex offender which led to officers turning up at his home.

Reynolds was arrested and both his laptop and mobile phone were checked out by police.

The subsequent investigation revealed he had been sending and receiving indecent videos of children being abused.

He was also found to have secretly filmed a 16-year-old girl performing a sex act. The victim had no idea that Reynolds had filmed her and then saved it.

Callum Reynolds, 24, of Prince Alfred Avenue, Skegness, was jailed for a total of three years and three months. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

He admitted three charges of distributing a total of 18 indecent images of children; six charges of making a total of 335 indecent images of children; production of indecent images of a child; attempted sexual communication with a child; attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act; and possession of extreme pornography.

The offences began when Reynolds was 15 and continued until his arrest in February 2019.

Recorder Graham Huston, passing sentence, told him: “The damage you have caused is immeasurable.

“Your participation in the paedophile group was seen by you as making friends, but the fact is that you chose a predatory paedophile group and their common intent was the sexual abuse of children.”

Eunice Opare-Addo, prosecuting, said: “Police were informed about a chat between a sex offender and this defendant. This led to the defendant being arrested and questioned in relation to sexual assaults.

“That led to the girls being spoken to and they confirmed there were no offences that had been committed.

“During the investigation the defendants laptop and mobile phone were seized. These devices were examined and it was revealed that indecent images of children had been sent and videos were also sent and received.”

A total of 173 of the indecent images found on Reynolds’ laptop and mobile were videos.

The court was told that Reynolds had no previous convictions.

Sunil Khanna, in mitigation, said Reynolds was bullied at school because of his weight and had become very isolated.

“He sought solace on the internet in chatrooms. He began accessing pornographic images. When he was 15 he was looking for girls around that age group but he developed that into younger and younger children.

“He became so immersed in this that it almost became normal to him.

“He has suffered from anxiety and depression throughout his life. He simply wants to start afresh.

“He is now older. He talks about being disgusted with himself. He says he has stopped looking at these sort of images.”